The Keep — Restaurant in Columbus

Extremely disappointed to say the least. I stayed at Leveque for the NYE’s Package and had my family come down for dinner and the party in the lobby. I figured it was a safe bet with both events being at the same location. Reservations for 7:15 and we arrived right on time. We were seated quickly and pleasantly but did not get water or even acknowledged for a solid 20-25 minutes. We asked for a wine menu and didn’t get that for another 20 minutes. Our waitress did not come back for another 10-15 minutes to get our drink order. We decided to order our soup as well since we could see it was going to be subpar service. Asked for a bottle of moscato, a glass of moscato and 3 mixed drinks. Took about 20 minutes to get 2 out of 3 mixed drinks and glass of moscato. Received the bottle shortly after and then told that they did not have the ingredients for an appletini. Ordered a different martini and another 10 minutes went by, then told they couldn’t make that either. We decided it was easier to just ask what martinis they could make. Waited a while and never got those suggestions. Decided to just get up and go to the bar ourself, then she came back with some suggestions while my friend was at the bar. He got a lemon drop in about 10 minutes from a bartender that looked and acted like he hated his job. While the drink fiasco was happening, we ordered our food. The soup came about 30 minutes after ordering it. 40 minutes after ordering, we were told they were out of scallops. Waitress said she would comp whatever we switched the scallops out for. Ordered steak frites and calamari/mussels to replace the 2 scallop orders. Waited roughly another 30 minutes and then the food finally came. We ordered bread in between the soup and the food because we were starving and just sitting there. Never got water refills or any more drink orders. Luckily the food was good, but not worth the price or wait. Waitress brought the check for one of my friends who got the scallops (that were supposed to be comped) and soup because she needed to leave. It was after 9 PM at this point. Somehow our waitress decided comped meant discounted. We disputed that and just paid for the soup. I got a free dessert for the hassle, but it wasn’t very good. Waitress finally brought the other 2 checks. Messed up which check the bottle of wine was on. Didn’t comp the other meal that replaced the scallops. Went back to fix it and then the wine was on both checks and told us she could only take one item off to comp for the scallops. Went back to fix it again and the gratuity was still calculating off the original total on one of the checks. We finally asked for the manager. He was apologetic at first but throughout the night, he became not so friendly. He did fix the checks and took money off. The worst part was we had to pay 20% gratuity because we had a party of 6. We are great tippers when the service is exceptional. The worst part of our experience was the service and she still got a really good tip…. We didn’t leave the restaurant until close to 10:30. Over 3 hours. I understand they were busy and we didn’t mind waiting, but this was extensive. We were contemplating leaving at one point but knew we wouldn’t be able to get in anywhere else. Our waitress, Felicia, never apologized and once the manager was involved, she didn’t speak or make eye contact again. Extremely unprofessional. She needs to find employment in a different industry. It’s unfortunate that my family’s first experience at the Keep and Leveque was like this. I plan to stay elsewhere...

05/14/2022

My wife and I decided to dine at The Keep for an early birthday dinner for myself. We had chosen The Keep because we had thought that it was a nice establishment to have a nice meal and drinks. We made a reservation, but upon our arrival we were seated at the counter right in front of the kitchen as if we had just walked in without one. My wife was able to get us moved after another patron had left but we were moved to what was, perhaps, the smallest table in the restaurant. We were hoping that this was just a snafu and were going to make the best of it. Our dining experience then become one of the worst that we’ve ever had from a “high-end” restaurant if you can call The Keep that.

Our waiter, Brice, on top of being standoffish and rude, was a ghost the entire night. It was a Herculean feat to get him to attend to our table at all. From the moment we sat down to the moment we finally left he had visited our table of his own volition three times in two hours, the initial greeting, taking our drink order, and taking our food order. He never came to attend our table unless we essentially yelled at him to come over. He frequently attended to other tables around us but as soon as we tried to flag him down, he would disappear. We ended up having to grab our own water from the counter multiple times. We finally got him to come over and ordered another round of drinks since we had already finished our first round from how long it took him to come get our food order. We then immediately realized this was a mistake since it was 20-30 minutes before we even saw him near our table again. At the end of this disaster of an experience we had to beckon him, once again, to our table to get dessert and had to ask for the check as well since we probably would never see him again. Not once during the entire meal did he come to ask how the food was, ask if we needed anything, acknowledge that we were in the restaurant, and he scurried away as fast as he could without saying anything as we left. It was the closest we’ve ever come to not tipping.

As for the food and drinks, we definitely expected much more from a place that charges this much for food. The steak in the Steak Frites was cooked well but the frites left a lot to be desired. The aioli that was provided with the fries gave them any semblance of taste. The Pork Shank was similar. The meat was cooked well but it and the sides (polenta and carrots) were extremely bland. The drinks are poorly made and way to expensive for the low quality. The Seasonal Mule tasted like watered down vodka with a hint of cinnamon. We literally ended up going to a completely different restaurant afterwards to salvage our horrible experience and the service and food were like night and day. Don’t come here if you want remotely decent service, palatable food for the price, or good drinks. What a joke. Thank you Hudson 29 for salvaging an almost...

Staff: The staff at The Keep are not outwardly bad. None of them told me to go play in traffic or anything. But when we approached the check-in desk, there were about 5 staff members hanging out, catching up on the morning gossip. They eyeballed us for a couple awkward seconds, because obviously only aliens would show up soon after opening, then hesitantly showed us to a table. Really got the feeling we interrupted a good conversation. I won't score the place over "vibes" but just a heads up.

Environment: You gotta enjoy a certain look to enjoy this place, which I do. It's like 1920's with modern sentiment. You can see the pics online. I'm not sure my fiance liked it, but she loved the gas lamps on the walls. But as I waited for my food, my eye kept getting drawn to the table right inside the door... it had a painfully obvious wad of paper holding it steady. This doesn't bug me, in and of itself... just that there are so many better options, especially for an upscale place. And it wasn't just temporary, cause they read my mind, as I was wondering if the table was wobbly, and seated me there later that night. It wasn't wobbly though...

Food: I would only recommend the charcuterie. It is big and it is tasty. For breakfast, I got biscuits and gravy. The gravy smelled atrocious, looked almost as bad and tasted as it looked. Scraped it off and ate the biscuit.

For dinner we shared the amazing charcuterie, then I got meatloaf. I have cooked one meatloaf in my life and it was better than this one. This one wasn't bad but..."meh". It came with asparagus, which was also "meh". Ordered a cocktail, something with a lunar name, it was strong. Not a complaint, just a warning.

Later, I wanted some beers and more food, so we ordered room service (you may have noticed this place has attached itself to a hotel). I ordered chicken pot pie. Now this was interesting. Take a normal, microwave pot pie, dump the gravy and veggies into a bowl, then make a rectangular puff of bread (slightly burnt) and place it on the gravy like a boat. In keeping with the other dishes, I was unimpressed and not filled in the slightest. Usually, pricey dishes with small portions have a degree of richness, but not these. The charcuterie is filling, but that's through sheer quantity.

Overall: I rate the place a 3 star. And honestly, it gets the extra star because my fiance, who has lower food and maintenance standards, and who didn't pay, liked the food. So I'm happy for that.

Suggestions: Find which will make the dish worth it, quantity or quality. Fix the table... they literally sell little "buttons" that you can tack to the bottom of the legs. Inexpensive.

Suggestions for guests of the Hotel Leveque: Pat and Gracie's and Tiger + Lily,...